R.I.P. Dept.: DA! Post-Punk Singer/Bassist Lorna Donley Dead at 53

Lorna Donley, once the intense singer for the post-punk band DA! but more recently a librarian, died on December 1, 2013, She was 53.

DA! was a Chicago band that formed in 1977, recorded two EPs, and broke up in 1982. As is particularly evident from the black and white video made for their song, “Next To Nothing” (check it out below), DA! never got had either the exposure or the success they deserved. Donley, who stars in the video, is has downbeat charisma.

As the Chicago Sun-Times noted in their obit, “In his ‘Secret History of Chicago Music’ comic strip in the Chicago Reader, Steve Krakow compared the band to ‘Patti Smith fronting Joy Division.'”

Lorna Donley with husband, Scott Taves, on their wedding day, just a few months before her death.

In early December Donley “had chest pain while having coffee with her husband of less than three months, Scott Taves, at their home near Peterson and Western,” the Sun Times reported. “They went to Swedish Covenant hospital, where she died Dec. 1 of a ruptured aorta.”

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About Michael Goldberg

Michael Goldberg is a distinguished pioneer in the online music space; Newsweek magazine called him an ‘Internet visionary.’ In 1994 he founded Addicted To Noise (ATN), the highly influential music web site. He was a senior vice-president and editor in chief at SonicNet from March 1997 through May 2000. In 1997, Addicted To Noise won Webby awards for best music site in 1998 and 1999, and also won Yahoo Internet Life! awards for three years running as best music site in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Prior to starting Addicted To Noise, Goldberg was an editor and senior writer at Rolling Stone magazine for 10 years. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Esquire, Vibe, Details, Downbeat, NME and numerous other publications. Michael recently completed his first novel, Days of the Crazy-Wild, and is currently writing a second novel.
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